Barker College

Barker College, renowned for its diverse sporting, cultural and recreational co-curricular programs, enables students to be involved in Music, Cadets, Debating, Drama productions, Outdoor Education and a choice of over 20 different Sports. Since 2019, Clipboard has seamlessly integrated into the ‘MyBarker’ student portal, allowing the entire school community to stay up-to-date with their activities.

Head of Sport, Cameron Anderson, sheds light on the key challenges he experienced at Barker and in his prior role at Pymble Ladies College, prior to Clipboard. This case study explores how Barker College successfully implemented Clipboard as its Extracurricular Management System, addressing critical challenges and revolutionising its approach to student engagement and safety. 

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Challenges Before Implementing Clipboard:

1. Inadequate Duty of Care: The absence of an efficient system for marking attendance, coupled with reliance on disparate methods such as paper rolls, Excel sheets, and manual form sharing, hampered Barker College's ability to ensure accurate attendance tracking. As a result, they lacked crucial insights into which students were attending training sessions and which ones were not, compromising their duty of care.

“Duty of care was the biggest issue. Not being able to mark the rolls accurately, relying on anything from paper rolls to Excel sheets, to coaches sharing forms, etc. We did not have accurate information coming back to us and we really didn't have a good understanding of who was turning up to training and who was not turning up to training. That was the primary frustration.”

2. Outdated Medical Information: Another pressing concern was the inability to ensure coaches received up-to-date medical information about students. Previous practices relied on outdated records, which might have been several months or even a year old. This created potential risks as the coaches may not have been aware of any recent health-related developments.
   

“The other frustration was not knowing whether the medical information we were giving the coaches was actually up to date. So it may have been medical information from the last time a parent had updated or the last time we received the information from the health care centre and printed it out. It could have been 12 months old. Whereas now with Clipboard, we grab the information from the school's database and it's as live as it can be.”

3. Inefficient Timesheet Management: The existing paper-based system for tracking employee hours, particularly for casual staff, proved highly inaccurate and unreliable. The manual process introduced complications such as lost or misplaced timesheets, which could compromise the confidentiality of sensitive information. The lack of an efficient mechanism to manage timesheets hindered effective staff management.

“A paper system, obviously, it's not very accurate. You're relying on staff filling it in, for one, which is quite typical for many casual employees. They're coming straight from uni, they're coming from other jobs, they've got to leave and get home or whatever they may be doing. And you may or may not receive that piece of paper back. And it could be lost in the back of their car or left beside a basketball court or whatever it may be. And if that piece of paper had information on it, which was meant to be private information, then that's a real issue. And I remember at Pymble at one point, picking up a coach's handbook, which had the roll in the back of it. And there were some things scribbled down, which were private to the student and the coach, and that really concerned me.”

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Impact of Clipboard's Extracurricular Management System:

Recognising the need for a comprehensive extracurricular management system, Barker College opted for Clipboard, an integrated solution seamlessly incorporated into the school's existing 'MyBarker' student portal. The adoption of Clipboard brought about significant improvements in multiple areas:

1. Enhanced Duty of Care: By leveraging Clipboard's advanced attendance tracking features, Barker College gained real-time visibility into student participation across various activities. Accurate attendance records enabled the school to prioritise student safety and well-being.

“It’s [Clipboard] saved a bit of stress more than time. I had huge concerns when we had paper rolls, and huge concerns when the medical information we were giving the coaches was not up to date.” 

“At Pymble, you had over 400 casual employees. There would have been 500 or 600 hundred pieces of paper every fortnight that came through for signing.”

2. Time-Savings: Clipboard’s digital interface, removed the need for paper rolls and the associated risks with outdated records, and inaccurate information. Cameron mentioned that “the admin team worked out that we probably saved somewhere between 2 and 3 days hours wise in a pay run for each staff member. It’s like taking it from a 1.0 staff member to a 0.5.” 

This is due to the fact the system is a “one-stop shop for us. They literally click a button and their team is there, they mark the role, and the medical information comes straight out of our engage student database which is live.” Cameron summarised the time saving of Clipboard, “we saved probably 15 hours in the sports department, per pay cycle. Which is basically a couple of days' work.”

3. Streamlined Timesheet Management: The introduction of electronic timesheets through Clipboard revolutionised the staff management process. The system eliminated the inaccuracies and uncertainties associated with paper-based timesheets, enabling efficient tracking, record-keeping, and timely payments for casual employees. Cameron also mentioned how he said digital timesheets through Clipboard, saved Pymble money, “north of $50,000 a year in savings”.

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Results and Benefits

The implementation of Clipboard as Barker College's Extracurricular Management System marked a significant turning point in addressing critical challenges and transforming the school's extracurricular operations. By leveraging the system's robust features, including accurate attendance tracking, up-to-date medical information, and streamlined timesheet management, Barker College successfully improved its duty of care, enhanced student safety, and optimised staff management processes. Clipboard has become an integral part of Barker College's commitment to delivering a comprehensive and enriching extracurricular experience to its students.

“Clipboard solved all three of the major issues I was facing at Pymble and again at Barker. It solved them completely” - Cameron Anderson, Head of Sport, Barker College.

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